Ganges Mahamudra

For the Clear Light yogin or yogini or the Zen warrior, it's always good to reread Tilopa's "Pith Instructions on Mahamudra" now and then, as it is a direct pointing at the nature of Great Reality, with precise instructions on how to train awareness via contemplation. -老虎

I bow to Vajra Dakini.

1Mahamudra cannot be taught, Naropa,But your devotion to your teacher and the hardships you’ve metHave made you patient in suffering and also wise:Take this to heart, my worthy student.

2For instance, consider space: what depends on what?Likewise, mahamudra: it doesn’t depend on anything. Don’t control. Let go and rest naturally.Let what binds you let go and freedom is not in doubt.

3When you look into space, seeing stops.Likewise, when mind looks at mind,The flow of thinking stops and you come to the deepest awakening.

4Mists rise from the earth and vanish into space.They go nowhere, nor do they stay.Likewise, though thoughts arise,Whenever you see your mind, the clouds of thinking clear.

5Space is beyond color or shape. It doesn’t take on color, black or white: it doesn’t change.Likewise, your mind, in essence, is beyond color or shape.It does not change because you do good or evil.

6The darkness of a thousand eons cannot dimThe brilliant radiance that is the essence of the sun. Likewise, eons of samsara cannot dimThe sheer clarity that is the essence of your mind.

7Although you say space is empty,You can’t say that space is "like this".Likewise, although mind is said to be sheer clarity,There is nothing there: you can’t say "it’s like this".

8Thus, the nature of mind is inherently like space:It includes everything you experience.

9Stop all physical activity: sit naturally at ease. Do not talk or speak: let sound be empty, like an echo.Do not think about anything: look at experience beyond thought.

10Your body has no core, hollow like bamboo. Your mind goes beyond thought, open like space.Let go of control and rest right there.

11Mind without projection is mahamudra.Train and develop this and you will come to the deepest awakening.

12You don’t see mahamudra’s sheer clarityBy means of classical texts or philosophical systems,Whether of the mantras, paramitas, Vinaya, sutras or other collections.

13Ambition clouds sheer clarity and you don’t see it. Thinking about precepts undermines the point of commitment. Do not think about anything; let all ambition drop.Let what arises settle by itself, like patterns in water.No place, no focus, no missing the point — Do not break this commitment: it is the light in the dark.

14When you are free from ambition and don’t hold any position,You will see all that the scriptures teach.When you open to this, you are free from samsara’s prison.When you settle in this, all evil and distortion burn up.This is called "The Light of the Teaching".

15The foolish are not interested in this.The currents of samsara constantly carry them away.Oh, how pitiable, the foolish — their struggles never end.Don’t accept these struggles, long for freedom, and rely on a skilled teacher.When his (her) energy enters your heart, your mind is freed.

16What joy!Samsaric ways are senseless: they are the seeds of suffering.Conventional ways are pointless. Focus on what is sound and true. Majestic outlook is beyond all fixation.Majestic practice is no distraction.Majestic behavior is no action or effort.The fruition is there when you are free from hope and fear.

17Beyond any frame of reference mind is naturally clear.Where there is no path you begin the path of awakening.Where there is nothing to work on you come to the deepest awakening.

18Alas! Look carefully at this experience of the world.Nothing lasts. It’s like a dream, like magic.The dream, the magic, makes no sense.Experience this grief and forget the affairs of the world.

19Cut all ties of involvement with country or kin,Practice alone in forest or mountain retreats.Rest, not practicing anything.When you come to nothing to come to, you come to mahamudra.

20A tree spreads its branches and leaves.Cut the root and ten thousand branches wither.Likewise, cut the root of mind and the leaves of samsara wither.

21Though darkness gathers for a thousand eons.A single light dispels it all.Likewise, one moment of sheer clarityDispels the ignorance, evil and confusion of a thousand eons.

22What joy!With the ways of the intellect you won’t see beyond intellect.With the ways of action you won’t know non-action.If you want to know what is beyond intellect and action,Cut your mind at its root and rest in naked awareness.

23Let the cloudy waters of thinking settle and clear.Let appearances come and go on their own. With nothing to change, the world you experience becomes mahamudra.Because the basis of experience has no beginning, patterns and distortions fall away.Rest in no beginning, with no self-interest or expectation.Let what appears appear on its own and let conceptual ways subside.

24The most majestic of outlooks is free of all reference.The most majestic of practices is vast and deep without limit.The most majestic of behaviors is open-minded and impartial.The most majestic of fruitions is natural being, free of concern.

25At first, practice is a river rushing through a gorge.In the middle, it’s the river Ganges, smooth and flowing.In the end, it’s where all rivers meet, mother and child.

26When your mind is less acute and does not truly rest,Work the essentials of energy and bring out the vitality of awareness.Using gazes and techniques to take hold of mindTrain awareness until it does truly rest.

27When you practice with a sexual partner, empty bliss awareness arises.The balancing of method and wisdom transforms energy.Let it descend gently, collect it, draw it back up,Return it to its place, and let it saturate your body.When you are free from longing and desire, empty bliss awareness arises.

28You will have a long life, you will not gray, and you will shine like the moon.You will radiate health and well-being and be as strong as a lion.You will quickly attain the ordinary abilities and open to the supreme one.

May these pith instructions, the essentials of mahamudra,Abide in the hearts of all worthy beings.

These are the great Tilopa’s oral instructions. On the completion of the twelve hardships, Tilopa taught these on the banks of the river Ganges to the Kashmiri pandit, the wise and learned Naropa. Naropa taught The Twenty-Eight Vajra Verses to the great interpreter, the king of translators, Marpa Chökyi Lodrö. Marpa finalized his translation at Pulahari in the north of India. Ken McLeod translated this into English in Los Angeles in the southwest of the United States, working from the efforts of previous translators and various commentaries.

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This is a little book of concise instructions for entering the non-dual state and experiencing the miraculous nature of life. It is a complete system for realizing the goal of Zen, for "entering the Gateless Gate." You can throw away all your other books on Enlightenment. Either this one works, or nothing will. “Put strength into it; abandon conceit.’ Just practice truly, with energy and resolve.

"At the Gateless Barrier"

At the Gateless Barrier, I play the old tunes on my bamboo flute./It's cold at night and everybody weeps to hear the ancient songs./Yet Zen is without sentiment.

I write. I do Zen. I play the bamboo flute.

"Great Nature, Great Manifestation, Great Realization." What does this mean? Every aspect of this life, which is Zen Enlightenment itself, is "great." Whether wonderful or terrifying or both it always "is" in a way that cannot be explained. Just try to explain it. Can you, or can't you?

It's just like when Master Ko Bong shouted "That's it! Ha, ha, ha, ha!" and broke his fan. Do you get it, or not? If you can tell me what you get, I'll bow to you. If you can't, I'll call you my Master. Either way, you win.

For more notes, poems and aphorisms: go here.See also 老虎: Lao Hu. Contact me at jyakunen(at)gmail.com.

SHIBUMI TEA ROOM

I've begun building a small tea room in the old style. Here, I plan to conduct the simplest and most ancient form of the Zen tea ceremony.

"Cool in summer, warm in winter; flowers from the field; prepare for rain; enjoy a sip of tea together."

This will be good place to sit and drink tea and listen to rain clattering on the roof. "After all there is no difficulty in tea, only enjoyment." (Kaji Aso)

Talk to the Moktak

There is nothing in the world bigger than the tip of an autumn hair, and Mount T'ai is little. No one has lived longer than a dead child, and P'eng-tsu died young. Heaven and earth were born at the same time I was, and the ten thousand things are one with me.-Master Chuang-Tzu